<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>adikavya by AllegoriesInMediasRes</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22415971">adikavya</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes'>AllegoriesInMediasRes</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ramayana fics [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ramayana - Valmiki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble Collection, F/M, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:41:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,241</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22415971</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Various Ramayana prompts filled on Tumblr.</p><p>Title is another name for the Ramayana.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Rama/Sita (Ramayana), Sita &amp; her sisters, Tara (Ramayana) &amp; Angada (Ramayana)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ramayana fics [23]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1105638</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Rama, diyas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi/gifts">The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/gifts">avani</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlyphArchive/gifts">GlyphArchive</a>.</li>



    </ul><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @hermioneaubreymiachase, who asked “Since it's Diwali, and I can't get enough of your great writing : Ramayana, Ram, and Diyas (these are small clay lamps that we fill with oil and light on the occasion of Diwali) for the Three Sentence Ficathon. Thanks and Happy Diwali 😃”.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Lakshman is gone (banished) on a hunting trip with explicit orders </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>to return for at least five days, and the hut is replete with </span>
  <em>
    <span>diyas.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Dusty red and dusty gold Sita is in the low candlelight, with shadows of purple-black as she bends over Rama. Hair cascades over bare shoulders, pupils dilate with desire, and ragged breath matches ragged breath.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Yes, I took a prompt for diyas and turned it into Rama and Sita having sex by candlelight.</p><p>Also yes, I wrote this on Diwali.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Sita, deer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @hermioneaubreymiachase who asked “Ramayana, Sita, and Deer for the 3 sentence ficathon. Thanks 😃”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Its fur is bristly around the nose, and silkier as she moves to its back, where she can trace the patterns of white spots against dull-brown fur that will disappear with time. The fawn stirs when Sita withdraws her hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then it turns and stumbles back into the forest on still-unsteady legs.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Kaikeyi, longing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @avani008, who prompted “Ramayana, Kaikeyi, longing” for the three sentence fic meme.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kaikeyi’s hair has always been her most beautiful feature, sleek and black and lustrous from Manthara painstakingly combing it and rubbing oil into it over the years. Dasharath loved to run his hands through the long lengths of it and wrap them around his fingers.</p><p>Kaikeyi is the youngest of Ayodhya’s queens, and her hair is the first to turn white.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Angad & Angad (Lakshmana’s son), first meeting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @avani008, who requested “Ramayana, Angad &amp; Angad (lakshmana’s son), first meeting” for 3 sentence fics.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lakshman’s first son is three when he meets his namesake. “A meeting of two crown princes named Angad,” some are foolish enough to joke, before hastily rectifying it to “a meeting of two princes named Angad” under Lakshman’s murderous glare. The lad has all of his father’s caution but none of his temper, and once he lets his defenses down, he follows the vanara around everywhere, so much that he has to be bribed away from him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Tara & Any, history repeats</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @avani008, who requested “Ramayana, Tara &amp; Any, history repeats” for 3 sentence fic.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She hates Rama.</p><p>It is not queenly, not gracious, but she is afforded so few satisfying grudges, and she never forgives the Raghu king for the deception he employed in her husband’s murder, no matter that Ayodhya and Kishkindha must ally for the war on Lanka. When word comes of Queen Sita’s exile months later, the very queen they fought to save, Tara is not surprised that once more, good King Rama’s honor proves to be a sham.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Tara & Angad, history is written by the victors</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @avani008, who requested “Ramayana, Tara &amp; Angad, history is written by the victors” for 3 sentence fic.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tara never reads the missives that come in from Ayodhya, so it is Angad himself who reads that Prince Lakshman has named his firstborn son after him.</p><p>“Is this Kosala’s way of making amends, then, by naming its Crown Prince after us?” Tara sniffs.</p><p>“Lakshman is insistent that his son not be named heir, not when –” but his mother has already turned away, and Angad returns to his vow of never bringing up the solar dynasty.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Sita & her sisters, reunion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @avani008, who requested “Ramayana, Sita &amp; her sisters, reunion” for 3 sentence fics.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It is Shrutakirti who most resembles her memory of a half-grown chit; her gait and posture are more practical now, more mature, but her face and her smile are still as bright and unpracticed. Urmila is almost as unchanged, as if her eternal rest came with eternal youth; it’s only the heaviness of her eyes that belies the seeming bliss of dreams.</p><p>Mandavi, though, lived at Nandigram in circumstances more straitly than any of them, the closest to the vows of poverty Sita kept, and at first glance, she is both a stranger and a sister in new ways: the ragged deerskin, the broken dirt-encrusted nails, and the rugged optimism that only asceticism can cultivate – none of which Sita remembers in either of them, but all of which they both found in the last fourteen years.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Ruma, Six Squared Meme.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @avani008, who requested Ruma for the Six Squared Meme. </p><p>This ficlet contains alcoholism and references to implied rape.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>hair of the dog</strong>
</p><p>Vali appreciates the liquor for making the nights easier for him. Ruma appreciates it for how it makes the days easier for her.</p><p>Tara is nothing short of frazzled when she discovers it, ordering that all bottles be locked away from the younger Queen. Ruma wouldn’t have expected something so brash of her – surely the wise Tara of Kishkindha must know that the best way to combat a dependency is by weaning, like a child being coaxed away from his mother’s breast – but panic has a way of blurring the senses. In any case, she finds herself with headaches even worse than the hangovers, and Vali resents the effect withdrawal has on her so much he himself offers wine to her. Ruma does not even have any shame left to sting her pride when she eagerly grabs the glass from him.</p><p>
  <strong>horse sense</strong>
</p><p>Vanaras do not domesticate and ride horses – when they themselves are animals, it seems an indignity to do so to another race. Instead, on the rare occasions when Ruma has the opportunity to witness a horse cavorting and snorting, she brushes a hand over its mane not in pacification, but in reverence.</p><p>
  <strong>cat with the cream</strong>
</p><p>She tries to escape, of course, but Vali has charmed enough of the guards and servants that she is a prisoner in her own home. They catch her easily enough, and he has her hauled back to his chambers like an errant child about to be whipped.</p><p>
  <strong>a sow’s ear</strong>
</p><p>Ruma is neither hideous nor dimwitted, but put her by Tara, and it’s immediately obvious who is the senior Queen of Kishkindha. Every move the woman makes sings of beauty; every word drips with wisdom.</p><p>Initially she cannot help but feel – not jealous, never jealous – but inadequate in her presence. With time comes a wisdom of its own, and she learns to feel glad that she will never be called to wear the crown.</p><p>
  <strong>birds of a feather</strong>
</p><p>She shares no blood with the boy, but Angad bears as many of her mannerisms – the careful consideration before speaking, the taste for the spiciest dishes, the detestation of rain – as he does with his parents and Sugriva, and it makes the emptiness of Ruma’s own nursery a little easier to bear.</p><p>
  <strong>white elephant</strong>
</p><p>Rama asks her to look after the scrap of Sita’s pallu with its jewels; she is touched by the trust implicit in the gesture, but wonders why he would not prefer to keep the only relic he has of his wife with him.</p><p>“I think you, better than anyone else, would understand her plight,” is the Raghu king’s cryptic response, and Ruma considers. They are both captured queens, true enough, but she finds she does not like to look at it. She may have been a prisoner, but at least it was in the perverse comfort of her own home. Queen Sita threw down this bundle because she was being taken to a place no one would ever find her.</p><p>Ruma keeps it in the deepest of her trunks while the war rages, and presses it into the Queen’s hands with a tight smile after the Agni Pariksha verifies her faithful. She does not see it again for months, not until Sita makes another visit to Kishkindha, this time her belly swollen with twin children. Wordlessly, she passes the cloth – now frayed and yellow – and the jewels – their burnish now blunted – back to her. In the morning, she leaves for the forest, despite exhortations to stay in the comfort of Kishkindha as an honored guest.</p><p>“I find I have little taste for pity,” she says, and Ruma watches her go. The bundle clinks helplessly to the ground from her numb hands.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Dasharatha, ten sentences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @hermioneaubreymiachase, who asked “For the 10 sentences meme : Dashrath I hope you're doing well, and thank you 😃❤️”.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>(Favorite) Color</b>
</p><p>Unkind tongues slander Sumitra as the drabbest of Dasharatha’s wives, neither his warrior queen nor the mother of his eldest son, and to silence them, he gifts her saris in the brightest shades of yellow and gold that Ayodhya has to offer.</p><p>
  <b>Crossover</b>
</p><p>Bharat never meets Dasharatha’s eyes again after he learns how his father let his mother strong-arm him into denying all his brothers a Hogwarts education.</p><p>
  <b>Fear</b>
</p><p>How is it that a man can have three queens and not one heir?</p><p>
  <b>Mythological Creature</b>
</p><p>Manthara is almost legendary in the bitterness of her complaints that she doles out, and only for Kaikeyi’s sake does Dasharatha tolerate her presence.</p><p>
  <b>Nature</b>
</p><p>Dasharatha despairs of ever curbing Laksman’s firebrand nature, and by the time the boys leave for the <em> gurukulam</em>, he consoles himself that at least Lakshman has channeled his anger into devotion for his eldest brother.</p><p>
  <b>Prophecy</b>
</p><p>He never tells Kausalya why he sometimes looks at Rama with such pain and fear in his eyes, no matter how desperately she asks.</p><p>
  <b>Religion</b>
</p><p>Which deity would a son of the solar dynasty favor but Surya?</p><p>
  <b>Role Model</b>
</p><p>In his youth, he reveres his ancestor Harishchandra, a king who gave up all that he had to fulfill a promise.</p><p>
  <b>Scar(s)</b>
</p><p>Kaikeyi once put her finger into the spoke of his chariot wheel when the axle broke in the middle of battle, and nearly had her finger whittled away in order to save his life; whenever he holds her hand, he always brushes his thumb over her smallest finger’s ridges and scars that never fully healed.</p><p>
  <b>Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Cardinal Virtues</b>
</p><p>Early one morning, Dasharatha and Shatrughna venture into the city with no guards and spent the day walking among their people, listening to what they have to say and dispensing charity; it is his fondest memory with his youngest son.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Sumitra, 10 sentence meme</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @glyphenthusiast, who asked “Kausalya or Sumitra for the 10 sentence meme?”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>(Favorite) Color</b>
</p><p>Shatrughna looks so bare without royal finery, in the deerskin of the ashram.</p><p>
  <b>Crossover</b>
</p><p>It makes Sumitra smile to see Lakshman’s letters sent from the <em> gurukulam</em>, with words and even whole sentences scratched out, her reckless son so carefully considering his words and trying to sound grown up.</p><p>
  <b>Fear</b>
</p><p>As soon as Sumitra learns of Rama’s exile, she knows that she has lost two sons.</p><p>
  <b>Mythological Creature</b>
</p><p>Sometimes she cannot bear to look at the sandals that Bharat brought back from Chitrakuta.</p><p>
  <b>Nature</b>
</p><p>She has a headache and Dasharatha said that he would lie down with her, but he got caught up in talks with Kaikeyi, and then Kausalya, and petitions, and oh—</p><p>
  <b>Prophecy</b>
</p><p>Only Kaikeyi’s unrelenting martial instincts and observations can calm Sumitra’s nerves when the boys leave to fight Taraka.</p><p>
  <b>Religion</b>
</p><p>She and Kausalya often take their prayers together in the morning.</p><p>
  <b>Role Model</b>
</p><p>Sumitra is so often quiet that Dasharatha treasures her rare moments of boldness and relishes others’ surprise at them even more.</p><p>
  <b>Scar(s)</b>
</p><p>Urmila falls into a fourteen-year sleep, another child lost, and once alone, Sumitra weeps, great heaving sobs of mucus and gasps.</p><p>
  <b>Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Cardinal Virtues</b>
</p><p>She has never been able to resist <em> laadus </em> or <em> kaju katli. </em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Mandodari, 10 sentence meme</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @hermioneaubreymiachase, who asked “Mandodari for the 10 sentence prompts please 😊”.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>(Favorite) Color</b>
</p><p>
  <span>For a man who conquered the gods, Indrajit has </span>
  <em>
    <span>horrendous</span>
  </em>
  <span> taste in clothing, and Mandodari and Sulochana must remedy the garishness of his wardrobe with resigned regularity.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Crossover</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Lanka proves to be the hardiest and longest-lasting out of all that she loves in her life.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Fear</b>
</p><p>
  <span>The windborne monkey’s conflagration was thankfully limited to the armory and claimed no lives, but smoke chokes the streets, the homes, and even the palace of Lanka for days afterwards.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Mythological Creature</b>
</p><p>
  <span>She is lauded as the most beautiful woman in the world, but at bitterness’s worst, she wonders why her beauty was not enough for her husband, that she was so lacking he had to sacrifice every brother, every soldier, every </span>
  <em>
    <span>son.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <b>Nature</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Mayasura and Hema find the Lankan prince learned but dignified, proud but pious, and in every respect a worthy bridegroom for their daughter.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Prophecy</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Doom is two princes-turned-beggars from Ayodhya.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Religion</b>
</p><p>
  <span>A thread of smoke wafts from the incense stick, sinuous and smooth, and Mandodari is mesmerized.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Role Model</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Indrajit loves and respects her, but it is his father whom he reveres, and Mandodari never sees why it should be otherwise, until it is too late and she wishes she had influenced her son away from his father by any means, </span>
  <em>
    <span>dharma</span>
  </em>
  <span> and propriety be damned, for what would it matter if she could hold him in her arms again?</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Scar(s)</b>
</p><p>
  <span>A woman does not say her husband’s name to preserve his life, and Mandodari says </span>
  <em>
    <span>Vibhishana</span>
  </em>
  <span> as often as the waves beat against the shore.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Cardinal Virtues</b>
</p><p>
  <span>She sends fresh robes to the unfortunate captive in the garden and finds them politely but firmly returned.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Lakshmana/Urmila, 10 sentence meme</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>For @shellweed, who asked “Hey, can you do the 10 sentence challenge for Lakshman and Urmila?”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>(Favorite) Color</b>
</p><p>Lakshmana takes her to the stables one afternoon to see a foal being born, and the coltish little thing is gray all over with dapples.</p><p>
  <b>Crossover</b>
</p><p>“Your older siblings are dating! It’s practically incest for you guys to get together as well,” sniffs one of Urmila’s judgmental roommates one night, while she and Lakshmana are snuggling together in the Gryffindor common room, and he makes a big show out of asking her out to Hogsmeade the next day.</p><p>
  <b>Fear</b>
</p><p>Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana are lost to the forest, Bharata, Mandavi, Shatrughna, and Shrutakirti to state business in Kekaya; Dasharatha to death, Kausalya and Sumitra to grief, and Kaikeyi to guilt, and when Nidra Devi makes her offer to Urmila, it is almost a relief.</p><p>
  <b>Mythological Creature</b>
</p><p>The first few nights after Lakshmana returns to Ayodhya, they stay up almost till sunrise discussing the fantastic creatures he met and fought with or fought against.</p><p>
  <b>Nature</b>
</p><p>In the early days of their marriage, Lakshmana’s innate rashness results in several loud arguments before she finds her footing as his wife – but really, she ought to have expected it considering the first time she saw him, he nearly got himself killed by the sage Parashuram for his insolence.</p><p>
  <b>Prophecy</b>
</p><p>Mother Sumitra often takes them to her personal balcony, where they sit and scatter birdsfeed to the pigeons, and a quiet stillness fills Urmila’s heart.</p><p>
  <b>Religion</b>
</p><p>Urmila sifts through the <em> chameli </em> blooms she has gathered for her and her <em> swami </em> before they attend the temple.</p><p>
  <b>Role Model</b>
</p><p>Urmila is incensed that she cannot go to the forest to serve her sister, just as her husband will serve his brother, until Lakshmana pleads with her, “Who will take care of my mothers and my father when I am not here?” and it is that, more than any strictures about women being useless and liabilities to men, that stays her protests.</p><p>
  <b>Scar(s)</b>
</p><p>Lakshmana cannot look at her for weeks when her belly begins to properly swell with Angada.</p><p>
  <b>Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Cardinal Virtues</b>
</p><p>The words are bitter and borne out of the deepest of agony and guilt – “<em>You had it the easiest of us, sleeping for fourteen years, and it was all over for you in the blink of an eye, what right have you to judge, when have you ever had to make a difficult choice? </em>” – and later, when he’s had time to sort out his anger and grief and truly apologize, she does sincerely forgive him; but that was no excuse for saying them in the first place, and he never forgets how her face shuttered the instant he spoke them.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Emerald, Ramayana</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Anonymous on Tumblr asked "Ramayana, emerald (the color)".</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>At last Rama and Lakshmana have finished tilling and spreading the dirt evenly, so that Sita can scatter the seeds in the furrows and bury them. Every day, she waters the grass-bed and pats the soil anew. Dirt embeds itself under her nails, as though she were a daughter of the earth and not a princess of Mithila. Every day, they wait to see.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, little blades of grass begin poking through the soil. At first, they are sparse yellow-green strands, soft like downy fur. More and more crowd the earth, until the grass is strong and bold emerald green.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Shrutakirti, Panchakanya meme</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>@alwaysthesideofwonder on Tumblr asked “Shrutakirti, Panchakanya meme”.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Ahalya</strong>
</p><p>an important first for them || deception || disguise || <em>something they waited for</em> || kill two birds with one stone</p><p>“The monsoons are almost over,” Mother explains again, “and the season for mangoes has passed. You will have to wait until next year’s harvest, or until the goods come in from our trading partners.”</p><p>Shrutakirti refuses to listen. She has been craving the sweet-savory golden fruits all week, and in the face of her desire, the slow march of the seasons has little weight. </p><p>“Then send for some! How much longer must I wait?”</p><p>“<em>Really</em>, Kirti!” Mandavi finally snaps, less patient than their mother. “Do you know how expensive it is to have fruits shipped all the way from the south? You’re almost twelve and still so ignorant of the world.”</p><p>Shrutakirti bristles at being scolded like a child. She is only one year younger than Mandavi and Urmila, and two years younger than Sita <em>Didi</em>, and yet they treat her as though a decade separated them in age. She wants to protest, but one look from Mother silences her.</p><p>
  <strong>Draupadi</strong>
</p><p><em>one grudge they held</em> || favorite hairstyle || baptism of fire || five finger discount || one big change that they wrought</p><p>Shrutakirti has always known in a vague way that as the baby of the family, she’s been cosseted and indulged, well past girlhood, but never has she been so sharply aware of how low she falls in contrast to her sisters until they leave for marriage. Away from the safety of home in Mithila and expected to conduct herself as a wedded woman in Ayodhya, she flounders like a fish dumped on shore. Shatrughna is too polite to say anything publicly, but his distaste at being saddled with so inept a wife is plain in his eyes every time she blunders. </p><p>Her husband is not cruel, but Kirti sees how Rama and Sita are each other’s halves how Lakshmana and Urmila can match each other in temper but also in devotion, how Mandavi and Bharata have built a quiet companionship, and she resents Shatrughna his silent disdain, however much she might deserve it.</p><p>At least they are the youngest of both their families, and will never be called upon to fulfill any greater destinies.</p><p>
  <strong>Sita</strong>
</p><p>friends are the family we choose for ourselves || green thumb || captive audience || no good deed goes unpunished || <em>true blue</em></p><p>Except -- they return from Kekaya to discover that their world has burned to ash, when before they left all was well. Death and exile and sleep and Nandigram have claimed all their family, and only Shrutakirti and Shatrughna are left behind in the palace of Ayodhya to support three grieving mothers.</p><p>Gods above, all Shrutakirti wants to do is <em>weep</em> sometimes. She never expected to have so much thrust upon her shoulders while losing the support of everyone whom she loved, and she is so <em>tired</em>.</p><p>But she sees the lines of weariness creasing her husband’s forehead, and crow-lines of guilt tugging at Kaikeyi Ma’s lips, and lassitude clouding Sumitra Ma’s and Kaushalya Ma’s eyes, and her fatigue ebbs away. </p><p>
  <strong>Tara</strong>
</p><p>one prediction they made || communal cup || <em>one injury/wound/illness they healed or cured</em> || on the tail end || keen acumen</p><p>If there is a bright spot in all this unhappiness, it is Shatrughna’s arms around her and his lips on her forehead, his whispered apologies that he misjudged her and his heartfelt gratitude to have her by his side, and the bed that they now share.</p><p>
  <strong>Mandodari</strong>
</p><p>frog in boiling water || mother lode || hospitality in a time of war || one time they intervened || <em>labor of love</em></p><p>Fourteen years of exile have carved away Shrutakirti’s petulance and her prickliness, but not her pride, and although she is not vain, she is proud of what she has accomplished, and what she managed to build out of tragedy. When Sita is banished for no fault of her own, of course Shrutakirti is devastated on her eldest sister’s behalf, but a part of her is also outraged on her own behalf, that she should give so much of herself to lift the family’s flagging spirits, only to have all her hard work blighted.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>